1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage system and a storage system construction control method.
2. Description of the Related Art For example, data is controlled using relatively large-scale storage systems in order to handle large quantities of various types of data in government organizations, public offices, autonomous regional bodies, business enterprises, educational organizations and the like. For instance, such storage systems are constructed from disk array devices or the like. Disk array devices are constructed by disposing numerous storage devices in the form of an array; for example, a storage region based on an RAID (redundant array of independent disks) is provided. One or more logical volumes (logical units) are formed in a physical storage region provided by a storage device group, and these logical volumes are provided to a host computer (more specifically, to a data base program operating in a host computer). The host computer (hereafter abbreviated to “host”) can perform the reading and writing of data with respect to the logical volumes by transmitting specified commands.
With the development of an informationized society and the like, there has been a continual increase in the amount of data that must be managed. Consequently, there is a demand for storage control devices that offer higher performance and a larger capacity, and there have been cases in which storage systems using a plurality of storage control devices have been constructed in order to meet this market demand. Such storage systems using a plurality of storage control devices include systems in which a comprehensive control mechanism is provided, and the system is devised so that the access to respective storage control devices by respective hosts can be set and controlled in a unified manner (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-63063).
The storage system described in the abovementioned patent is merely a storage system in which the setting of access paths or the like is controlled in a unified manner so that a comprehensive security system is established; no consideration is given to organic cooperation between the respective storage control devices.
Specifically, in this patent reference, no consideration is given to the effective utilization of the memory resources of the storage system as a whole by causing a plurality of storage control devices to cooperate, and allowing one storage control device to utilize the memory resources of another storage control device as the owner of these resources.